


Quite The Lesson About Trust

by SplinteredSunlight



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Accidental Cuddling, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Teen Wolf (TV) Fusion, Alternate Universe- No Supernatural, Betrayal, Cuddling & Snuggling, Enemies to Friends, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Hate to Love, Marrish, Men Crying, No Smut, Partner Betrayal, Sad, Sad Ending, Sad and Sweet, Short & Sweet, Sweet, Unhappy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-21
Updated: 2020-02-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:34:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22833367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SplinteredSunlight/pseuds/SplinteredSunlight
Summary: ...but then he caught the sight of her office from the corner of his eyes and it took him everything not to slam his fist on the table again... but lately he had been thinking about how he could bring her down, how he could make her intimidated of him, and for that he needed to know what kind of person she was. So, he smiled back at her, trying to make it look as genuine as possible.“Thanks, Miss Martin, I’ll see you soon.”“Great. See you.”...He tried hard to disregard the fact that he actually liked talking to her and listening to her talk ... He didn’t know how he remembered all that, maybe because he was trying to focus on picking up the essential parts of the conversation, at least, that’s what he tells himself....They order Mexican and finish an entire tub of ice cream before going to bed. Lydia logs on to her Netflix and they watch Ratatouille, and at the end of the film when Jordan sobs at the scene where the critic remembers his mom’s soup, Lydia pats his back and ruffles his hair....or the one where Jordan is petty af and betrays Lydia
Relationships: Lydia Martin/Jordan Parrish
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4
Collections: Teen Wolf AUs





	1. Chapter 1

Jordan thrashes his fist down on the table, toppling over the pen stand, sending its contents flying all over the floor. A couple of his neighbors peek from their cubicles to see what comet plummeted next to them. Once they confirm the source of the sound, they go back to their respective works as if they want to hide the fact that they saw anything at all. Jordan didn’t care what they thought of him flinging his supplies all around his cubicle. Jordan Parrish, a man of 29, wasn’t supposed to be tossing things in anger like a twelve-year-old; but he had been behaving that way since the last two weeks, the third week of February to be specific, when his world had turned upside down due to the impact of an unexpected news.

He was supposed to be promoted, and he knew very well how hard he had worked over the past couple of months to expect the promotion, not to mention the praises he received for the presentation of a project that was way out of his league, something that cost him uncountable nights of sleep. Whatever doubt that had been left in him about bearing the fruit of his hard work, vanished right after his presentation when he witnessed the approving looks from his colleagues as well as the other board members. He was confident that he would soon be asked to visit the main office where he would be offered his new post. In fact, he was 99.9% sure that he would, but damn that 0.01%.

It was not like he was building castles in the air, he was a practical man; in the board meeting before the last one, he was made to know personally that there was a great chance that he might be promoted, that too, by the CEO of the firm. A CEO is no Chairman, but his opinions are quite important. Jordan had waited all his life to listen to something as marvelous as this, so he doubled his work hours, trying to prove that he really was worthy of the post that was to be offered to him. He overenthusiastically accepted the opportunity for preparing the presentation just to prove himself. Alas! It was all in vain. The next board meeting that they were notified of was within three days after his presentation, and poor Jordan assumed that the day of his promotion had finally arrived.

But all his castles came crumbling down right on top of him when Mr. Argent, the General Manager, his boss, introduced Lydia Martin as the new Regional Manager, the very post that he assumed himself to be promoted to.

He was dumbstruck. He didn't anticipate such an outcome at all. But he kept a straight face throughout the meeting and even managed to squeak out a 'congratulations' to Miss Martin. The rest of the day passed quickly as if his brain was taking its time to accept exactly how terribly his dreams, rather, his entire world, had been shattered along with his confidence. On his way home, he was so lost in thoughts that he got off at a wrong station. When he finally reached his apartment, his head was spinning, and that’s when it hit him: some newcomer had robbed him of his promotion. It sounded weird to him at first, how could he think like that? But then, after chugging down half a bottle of whiskey, his formerly ridiculous verdict started to make sense to him. Wasn’t it true that he had waited long enough for this day and that he had worked hard enough for it? How can some girl come prancing in and take what was supposed to be his from the start? He deserved that post. It was meant for him. “How?!” He screamed into the empty dark room, with tears streaming down his face. He didn’t care that it was almost half past two, and there were a bunch of elderly residents in the building. He hurled the half empty bottle at the wall which smashed right against it, closely missing the glass window. He knew in the back of his mind that he’d have to clean up the mess first thing in the morning, and assuming that the laundry basket was placed along the same wall, he regretted throwing it. He dragged down a pillow from the bed and laid on the cool tile floor. His subconscious mind then started recalling everything from the beginning, from the time when he contemplated about taking up this job offer. 

Working for the Hales Private Limited was probably the biggest achievement in his life since he left his hometown at Rochester for it. The Hales Private Limited was a company that offered quite a lot of services, but Jordan was chosen for the Cyber Security Service department. It was an interesting job that made full use of his potential and skills. Since the time he came to know about the Hales Private Limited, all through his college life, he had dreamed about being recruited in the company. When he left for Manhattan, he left everything behind him. His dad, his friends, his old excuse of a shitty job strictly limited to web page designing, and most importantly, the love of his life – Chloe. That was exactly how important the job was to him. It was his dream job at his dream company, how could he not? He was only 24 when he left and he was so occupied with his dream that he came to the conclusion that he needed to give all of his attention to the job, now that he had achieved his goal. He couldn’t afford to let any distraction hold him back from his utmost potential, even Chloe. Quite surprisingly, when he came clean to her, all she did was wipe off a stray tear gliding down her cheek and smile at him enthusiastically (obviously trying to hide the fact that she was dying inside) congratulating him on his achievement, assuring him that she understands him. At that point, Jordan had felt as if someone had plunged a hand inside his ribs and clawed his heart out.

For Jordan, no distraction meant NO DISTRACTION. So, the only person he talked to was his dad, who was a sheriff back in his hometown, and could never talk more often because of both of their jobs. He got himself a new phone number just to avoid and shut out everyone he knew, that’s how focused he was. He moved into a studio apartment in Third Avenue somewhat close to Cherry Tree Park, exactly 2 hours away from the campus of Hales Private Limited. The day he moved in to his rented apartment, he got there with his bare essentials and he had finished unpacking in a matter of hours. The only electronics he had brought with him was his cell phone, laptop and a microwave oven. His clothes all fit into one cardboard box, 4 pairs of jeans a bunch of t-shirts, and that one new white shirt his dad had gifted him on the day of the big news. Stacking the clothes in the wardrobe that came with the rented apartment, and placing all his study materials in the book shelf, that also came with the apartment, he grabbed his wallet and phone and headed out to acquaint himself with the coffee shop, the take-out place and the clothes store. His first day at the job was still a week away, but he couldn’t keep the essentials for later. Apparently, looking for shops in a new city was something he didn’t want to waste time on mid-work. That’s how obsessed he was.


	2. Chapter 2

Jordan didn’t realize when he had dozed off, but upon awakening he realized that his face was pressed on the floor, way too close to a shard of glass from the shattered bottle from the night before. For a moment, he had been a little disoriented about his surroundings, about why he was hugging a glass tumbler to his chest. But, when he was reminded of all that had happened in the past 20 hours, he sat up and gazed outside the window. He could feel the hangover from drinking excessively as he crawled to the bathroom and stood under the warm, slightly scalding spray of hot water, and hoped that it would magically take the hangover away. He dressed up and heated himself a cup of water for his coffee. In a few minutes, he had been chugging his coffee down occasionally scalding his mouth, while checking his phone for new notifications. There weren’t, except for two messages from two of the grandmas in the building who had heard the smashing of the bottle from the night before and had asked him if he was okay. He replied with a quick text to each of them, assuring them that the sound of the breaking glass was because he had hurled a tumbler at a spider on the wall and that he was okay. He was trying to be extra polite to everyone because he was afraid that he might have another outburst like the night before. Such anger issues were so unlike him that he had been surprised of himself.

He had taken the subway, and when he reached the office, he realized that he was the only one there, except for the doorman. Climbing the flight of stairs to his floor, he began to walk through the narrow path separating the two rows of cubicles. But he had to stop in his tracks when he had noticed the silhouette of a woman behind the patterned glass door that separates the break room from the working area. He realized that it was Miss Martin when her unfamiliar voice indicated that she had been talking on the phone. Jordan let out a deep breath, pinching the bridge of his nose and walked to his cubicle. He had plugged in his headphones and cranked the volume to the highest as he put on High Hopes by Panic! At The Disco on repeat and started working on the programming that had been assigned for that day. Soon, he became occupied with his coding and had lost track of time and his surroundings, until there was a tap on his shoulder. When he looked up, he was, at first, confused about who the person was, but then he had straightened up seeing that it was Miss Martin. She had been holding out a candy bar, smiling at him. He offered her a grin and took the packet, turning back to his screen. There is another tap and this time, he had lowered his headphones and turned to her.

“Yes? Miss Marin, is there anything that you wanted?”

“Not really, I’m just really impressed that you came this early to begin your work. Good job.”

“Thank you.”

She had grinned and headed back to her office, the office where Jordan had always pictured himself in. He had let out a soft grunt and put the headphones back on to cut out the sound of her heels on the wooden floorboards.

That had been the only conversation they ever had, because after that, Jordan had made it his life’s mission to avoid her, unless it were the board meetings, where he had always maintained a 10 feet distance between themselves. He had even tried not to acknowledge her presence unless it was absolutely necessary. But he was the supervisor of his block, so he had to be present during most of the meetings, which made it exceptionally hard for him to resist himself from slamming his head against the table. That was how most of the days had passed for the past two weeks.

When he slams his fist on the desk, he is aware that his outbursts had been quite noticeable since the last couple of days. He tries to look apologetically at one of his colleagues but fails to do so since all of them are back to staring at their own monitors. The colleagues had known him to be quite a reserved person, showing no signs of frivolity in his way of life. Not a lot of people engaged, rather, tried to engage him in their conversations, unless it was of utmost importance regarding work. It had been evident that most of them were intimidated by him. Thus, seeing him getting worked up at first was quite a news to the people who were acquainted with him, but no one dared to find out what could happen if they approached him, or tried to console him even. Most of them exchanged worried glances, but all of them steered clear out of his peripheral vision, which was technically quite hard to do even though the floor in which he worked was enormous.

During his first outburst, he had crushed his Styrofoam cup of coffee, like a jock crushing an empty beer can. Needless to say, blisters had formed on his fingers within a few seconds, and when some older lady had offered him a pack of ice, he had snatched it from her and held it on his burnt hand, like it was a hydraulic press. Everyone backed away from his table as they assumed that the ice pack might be hurled at them any moment. He knew that everyone had witnessed it, so he had decided to keep his cool for some time, until he couldn’t anymore, and all his rage came in multitudes. Thus, he had stopped bothering himself about keeping his cool, which he was failing at miserably anyways.

Miss Martin on the other hand was nothing but a ray of sunshine. She was caring and affectionate towards her employees, always making sure that no one had to stay back longer than work hours, that no one was overburdened, always with a smile plastered to her face, receiving smiles back from the people who Jordan had never seen smiling before. His ears perk up as he looks up to see that Miss Martin was making her way towards him. He is flabbergasted as he knows that there was no way now to avoid her. She had heard the bang and had seen the pens falling like confetti on one side of his cubicle.

“You alright there Jordan?”

“Yes of course.”

“You sure? Is something wrong?”

“No. I’m good. Thankyou.” 

“Okay, in 15 minutes from now, why don’t we go and grab some coffee from downstairs, and you can tell me what’s bothering you?”

Somehow, Jordan found it really hard to be rude to her, but then he caught the sight of her office from the corner of his eyes and it took him everything not to slam his fist on the table again. At first, he wanted to decline as politely as possible, but lately he had been thinking about how he could bring her down, how he could make her intimidated of him, and for that he needed to know what kind of person she was. So, he smiled back at her, trying to make it look as genuine as possible. 

“Thanks, Miss Martin, I’ll see you soon.”

“Great. See you.”

As she leaves, Jordan starts planning how to make her open up to him, just so he could take advantage of her weaknesses. It’d be a long process, he knew that very well, but he was going to give his best trying to bring this woman down and take back what was supposed to be his. He couldn’t concentrate in his work anymore as he kept checking the time, waiting for the said fifteen minutes to be over. He was slightly ashamed of himself thinking that way and looking forward to such degrading strategies, but he couldn’t just let go of his conception that she was the reason why he never got promoted. After almost 20 minutes, he saw the glass door swing open as Miss Martin walked out of her office towards him.

“Hey there. I’m sorry I’m a bit late. Let’s go.”

“Yes ma’am.”

Once they ordered their respective coffee, they start chatting. Jordan makes up a lame story to let her know that that’s what was bothering him earlier. As much as he hates how supportive she is trying to be, he couldn’t help but listen to her, taking mental notes about how he would cope with a similar situation (like his lame story) if it ever arrived. By the time they are done with their coffee, Jordan realizes that they had spent about an hour talking over two cups of coffee and a bunch of muffins. When he is back at his cubicle, he goes over the key points in the conversation that would be helpful in his mission. He realizes that Miss Lydia Martin is a generous and a kind woman, who would never be rude to anyone even if they wronged her, she is always focused about making sure that everyone had her in her good books and that too, not by buttering them up, but for her actions. She loves animals, a lot, and spends every Saturday at an animal shelter and donates loads of money for the welfare of stray animals. She loves binge watching tv series as well as spending sleepless nights for preparing the perfect project. She got involved and obsessed with things, be it job related or something as simple (according to Jordan) as music bands, very easily. Like him, she had wished to work for the Hales Private Limited since a long time. She had better qualifications than him (according to his own evaluation) and when her acceptance letter came, like him, she left her family back home and came here all the way to Manhattan from Florida. Even though he doesn’t want to admit it, after the conversation, he felt as if he had known her for years, and not just for an hour. He tried hard to disregard the fact that he actually liked talking to her and listening to her talk - the way she pouted in disagreement when one of her favorite characters in the book was killed in the first season of the show based on the same book, how she closed her eyes when she tried to remember a lyric from a song, how she smiled from ear to ear when she mentioned her favorite puppy back at the shelter. He didn’t know how he remembered all that, maybe because he was trying to focus on picking up the essential parts of the conversation, at least, that’s what he tells himself. Jordan starts having cold feet about his whole plan, in fact, he feels horrible for coming up with such a strategy. He tries to take his mind off the situation and focusses back to his monitor. The hours pass by and soon, and it’s time to go home as he shuts down his desktop, stuffing his note pads and pens in his backpack.

While he passes the glass door of the office, he sees that Lydia is hunched on her desk reading a paper placed next to the huge stack of paperwork. He knocks and enters, mentally kicking himself for even thinking what he is about to do. Lydia frowns at first, obviously she doesn’t want to be disturbed, but then when she recognizes him, a smile breaks out on her face. Jordan can’t help but smile back at her.

“Hey, Jordan, did you need anything?”

“No, Miss Martin. I’m just curious about why you’re still here.”

“I see. Well, there’s this whole bunch of stuff I must go through before I can appoint a few interns on a project. You heading home?”

“Yeah. Umm… do you need any help?”

“I’d love that. But I’m sure you’ve got places to be, and you know I don’t let people overwork. Its unethical of me to make people do my job depriving them of their sleep…”

“I don’t mind, really. Let me help. And you can buy me muffins sometime soon.”

Lydia bites her lips going over the pros and cons of the situation, and finally nods hesitantly.

“Okay, Jordan, I can totally use some help right now, but are you sure you don’t want to get home?”

“Absolutely. Here…”

Jordan drops his bag near the couch and heads to her table, he takes half of the paperwork from the bottom of her pile and starts going through them. He realizes that the last Regional Manager used to hand them similar stuff as these, almost a hundred pages a week and expected results from them soon enough to make most of them work extra hours. He smiles as he understands that Lydia is not like the last person sitting in the same office. The documents in their hands are just a bunch of records from a few other branches from New York City and the branch at Long Island. Since he is familiar with this kind of work (thanks to his last Manager) he is going through the records faster than Lydia, striking his highlighter frequently, and placing the papers back on respective stacks. Suddenly an idea comes to his mind and he wants to smack himself for not coming up with it sooner. He starts stacking the papers in the wrong way, putting the important ones in the discard pile and the unnecessary ones in the pile of the approved ones. He feels horrible for doing that and to avoid the guilt that creeps along his spine, he keeps his gaze focused on his papers. He knows very well that there is no way he would fall in trouble because this is not his job, and the only person to be blamed would be Miss Lydia Martin. The possibility of a bunch of interns not being selected also make its way in his head, but he shakes the feeling off. After going through the rest of his pile, he looks up to see that Lydia has already started with another new bunch. He pushes his chair back receiving a quick look from her.

“Coffee?”

“Oh my god, yes please. Thankyou Jordan.”

When he comes back with two mugs of coffee, he sees that Lydia is looking at the ceiling propping her head on the back of her chair. He can’t help but notice how a few locks of her honey blonde hair hangs around her white collar that peeks out of her grey sweater. Sensing him enter the room, she straightens up and beams at him eyeing the coffee mugs. He almost regrets going through with his horrible plan, but what’s done is done. He smiles back at her and places the mugs on the table.

“Glad we have a coffee machine here. I wouldn’t have survived otherwise.”

“Ugh… You’re so right man, I can’t function without coffee. Jordan, thank you so much.”

They get back to their works after finishing their coffee and chatting for a while. After finishing three more stacks, stopping in between for a couple more coffee breaks, when they are finally done, it is already 4 am, only three hours left before sunrise and five hours before actual office hours. Lydia sends him home telling him to take the day off, but he declines, work is everything for him, so they negotiate, and Lydia tells him that he can come to the office around 3pm, since he doesn’t want to take the day off.

Once he is home, he changes into a t-shirt and shorts and falls face first into his pillow hoping that the sleep would make him unconscious any moment now. But he can’t sleep when he remembers what he did, how he exploited her indirectly even though she had been nothing but nice to him. He had never played dirty to get what he wanted, the guilt kept consuming him and he wished he could confess all of it to someone. And he was instantly reminded of Chloe, how they were best friends, how she was always the first one to know about anything significant that came by him when they were together. In fact, when he was praised for his presentation, he had involuntarily reached for his phone to call her up before realizing that her number was not in his contact list. The exhaustion and mental torment thankfully make him drift into deep sleep in a few minutes.

He wakes up with a start as he blinks at the buzz of his alarm which was set to remind him of coffee breaks in the office. Its only 12 pm, so he changes back to his shirt and pants and heads to the office. He is greeted by Lydia when he goes to get himself a coffee, and immediately he is again struck by guilt. He grins at her trying to hide any hint of culpability in his face.

“Good afternoon Miss Martin.”

“I think I told you not to get here before 3? Its not healthy to overwork.”

“I’m fine, I got about 5 hours of decent sleep, so I’ll be good to work the rest of the day and complete whatever might be pending.”

“Don’t worry. I knew that you’d show up at some point today and I didn’t want to dump the workload on you, so I distributed a bit of it to the rest of them.”

She gestures towards the cubicles and Jordan feels warm at heart for her unsolicited kindness and thanks her. The rest of the day passes uneventfully, except for the fact that his eyes dart to Lydia’s glass door frequently hoping to see her again. He was drowning in guilt and was trying to come up with a way to fix his actions, until he sees the very stacks of papers they were going through yesterday was being taken out of her office in a cart, to be sent to the Board of Directors, he wants the ground to crack and swallow him along with the entire office. Tearing his gaze back to the monitor, he swallows and focusses on the day’s work.

When he leaves for home, he decides to walk all the way back instead of taking the subway; he needs some time to sort out his thoughts. Soon a sleek black Chevy Camaro slows down next to him and he increases his pace to avoid unnecessary attention, but it honks behind him making him stop and turn towards it. When the door opens, its none other than Lydia who smiles at him.

“It’s snowing out here, why aren’t you home already? It’s been hours since you left.”

“Oh… I guess I lost track of time…”, taking notice of the surroundings, “…and place, when I decided to take a few minutes’ walk.” He sees the snowflakes on her car and says, “Wow! It’s snowing!”

“You okay Jordan?”

He opens his mouth, but he doesn’t know what to say. Lydia cuts him off and opens the passenger’s side door.

“Hop in, I’ll drive you home.”

The determined look on her face makes him get inside the warm car. Soon they are heading to the location he puts on the GPS. They don’t talk much on their way and he is secretly pleased with her that she doesn’t press him about sharing his feelings; had it been Chloe, he’d have had a hard time keeping his ugly truth from her. When they finally reach their destination, Jordan thanks her.

“Would you like a cup of coffee before you head out Miss Martin?”

“Oh, how thoughtful of you! Thankyou Jordan, but, maybe some other time? I kind of need to check on a few things before visiting the animal shelter tomorrow. You can join me if you’re willing. I’ll mail you the address.”

“I’ll be there. Thankyou. Have a safe ride.”

After wishing each other ‘Good Night’, he heads inside and when he shuts the door, he hears Lydia’s car engine start. Realizing that she waited till he got to his door he smiles. He is still smiling when he flops in his bed and drifts off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, this is my first attempt at fan-fictions. I actually wanted to begin my writings with a Sterek fan-fiction, but then I was like naah... because my university exams are in a couple of weeks and I cant afford to work on the plot I have in mind. Ironically enough, this story-line was thought of while I was trying to make sense of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, because obviously, what better time to day dream, duh, who needs a degree anyways...  
> Okay, so yes, Parrish is an arsehole here, I don't even know why I did that, because in the show, he is the nicest guy, I mean he's probably the only deputy who shows Noah Stilinski some respect, and he so nice to everyone else he comes across. But, this is an alternate universe, so... I'm sorry okay, I'll write another one where he's a gummy bear. And Lydia, oh god, okay, I, and I cannot stress this enough, love her. She is my fourth favorite female characters from the show, the first three being, Allison Argent, Mama McCall and Malia Tate. Yeah, i kind of disliked her in the beginning of the show, because she was extremely rude, but then again, who isn't, its high school for God's sake.  
> Oh, hold your breath, for I cant wait to write more stuff. There'll be Sterek stuff!!!! And I am so excited to write about it!!! Also, I promise smut in my next works. I could have added so here, but ! really need to get back to my books. So, I hope you enjoyed this, and I want you guys to write just how much you did; but, even if you didn't, let me know... please? Also... give me story-lines my honey bunches... and, if you liked this, share it. Give me motivation to write. Kudos <3


	3. Chapter 3

Next day at the shelter, Jordan thanks Lydia repeatedly as she introduces him to the animals there. He didn’t even know that he liked cats better than dogs until a calico purrs against knee rubbing its face along his thigh. He laughs heartily as a corgi laps at his face. He laughs in a way he couldn’t remember when he laughed like that the last time. After spending hours there, he and Lydia stop by a coffee shop where Lydia makes him eat six chocolate muffins, just like she had promised. They are not acquaintances anymore; they are friends now. 

When they head back to their respective homes all they can think about is each other, the way they talked, the way they laughed, the puns and the jokes they made… everything. Jordan probably loved her company more, so he was the one to start the texting.

**< Hey, Miss Martin, thanks for today. I had a lot of fun. I hope we can hang out often … of course if its okay with you. I hope you don’t mind me texting.**

He receives the reply sooner than he can drop the phone on the bed.

**> Hey, it’s totally fine. I’m glad you enjoyed today. And please, call me Lydia. **

**> It’s Sunday tomorrow, what are your plans? **

**< Nothing really ma’am. But I was thinking if we could visit this new bookstore they opened around here. It’s just a 10 minutes walk from my apartment.**

**> That’s a great idea actually. I didn’t know you liked reading books?**

**< Umm… _you_ do, so… It’s fine if you have other things to do.**

**> Jordan Parrish, I wouldn’t miss visiting a bookstore for the world. Of course, I’ll come.**

**< Great. And maybe later we can come back to my apartment for coffee.**

**< If it’s okay for you of course.**

**< I’m sorry, my brain is fried from all the excitement. It’s totally fine if you don’t think that is appropriate.**

**> I’d actually love to come over.**

**< Phew! Here I was thinking if I should smash my phone for sending that text.**

More texts and more laughter follow. They visit the bookstore, they hangout in the nearby park, they have coffee, a lot, and they laugh even more. In Jordan’s apartment they play Uno (apparently, she always keeps a pack of cards in her bag), and Lydia’s laughter echoes in the room every time she beats him out of sheer luck. He accepts the aura of warmth that is omnipresent around her welcomingly.

Come Monday, Jordan waits outside the office to greet Lydia ‘good morning’ and later that day they hangout in the cafeteria. Everyone else in the office looks at them in a confused glare, as if he is keeping her away from them.

They hangout even more the rest of the month and by the end of April, almost everyone assumes that they are dating. But they are not, they share a special bond that is so much more than stupid adolescent titles. She invokes in him the magic of music and art and books and stars. He feels like a new person in a newer world. He loves the feeling, even though it had been while since he had felt that way. And its all because of her. They go to the terrace during the weekends and gaze at the spectacular twilight sky, with a cup of hot cocoa in their gloved hands. By now, Jordan knows most of the _Iron and Wine_ songs and at times he surprises himself when he hums along a _Mumford and Sons_ song when Lydia plays it in her speakers. Lydia let him borrow a couple of Paulo Coelho books and they now adorn the empty shelves, while _By The River Piedra I Sat Down And Wept_ sits on his bedside table. He couldn’t believe what he had been missing all this time and he tries to please Lydia all the more for introducing her to such a beautiful aspect of life. They lose track of time whenever they hang out together, and on one such day, when they look at the clock from their Monopoly board (which Jordan bought as an excuse to invite Lydia over to his place), they realize that they had been playing for more than five hours. It’s already past midnight and he offers giddily that she can stay over. Lydia nods in approval, lifting the weight off his chest, as she throws a pillow at his face. They order Mexican and finish an entire tub of ice cream before going to bed. Lydia logs on to her Netflix and they watch _Ratatouille_ , and at the end of the film when Jordan sobs at the scene where the critic remembers his mom’s soup, Lydia pats his back and ruffles his hair whispering: I know, I know. To lift their spirits when they watch F.R.I.E.N.D.S, they laugh in unison, till they fall asleep at some point.

When he wakes up, Jordan realizes that his head is propped on Lydia’s arm, with his nose dangerously close to her neck. He attempts to catch a whiff of her but decides against it when he sees her lips move. Trying not to wake her up, he lifts his head slowly and sits up on the bed rubbing away the sleep from his eyes. Suddenly, her hands wrap around his torso as she cozies up close to him. Taking a peek behind him he is relieved that she is still sleeping soundly. Since it’s a Sunday, there is no rush for them to get to the office. Surely Jordan can spend a few more hours on the bed, _next to the most amazing woman on the planet_. When he lays back on the bed again, he gazes at her, how her lips still hold the faint lines of smiles, how her tangled mess of hair falls softly around the pillow, how her t-shirt stretches in a way around her shoulder from where peeks the red strap of her bra. He remembers that one time when they were sitting on a bench at a park and some guy had come up to her trying to make conversations, she had entwined her fingers with Jordan’s hinting that they were a couple, and the rest of the day they walked hand in hand. He remembers how soft and warm her hands were and how she thought it was hilarious when people stopped midway while trying to approach both of them when their gaze locked on their hands, at one point Lydia had grabbed his arm and placed against her waist just to make it more obvious. It was hilarious of course, when Jordan felt that his heart wasn’t beating steadily anymore and that he was uncomfortable thinking that she can hear his heart hammering away merrily in his chest. He was lost in his thoughts until her arms wrapped around him and she pulled herself closer to him burying her face into his chest. He felt jolts of electricity coursing through his veins as he concentrated on breathing very slow lest she wakes up. All he wanted was to bask in the warmth of this goddess clinging to him for as long as possible.


	4. Chapter 4

Suddenly Lydia’s phone starts ringing from the coffee table and she wakes up with a start, and realizing that she was lying so close to him, she blushes as Jordan smiles meekly at him. When she takes the call, she walks to the kitchen as she speaks and Jordan can’t really make any sense out of the bits of the conversation that catches his ears. She ends the call and approaches him and Jordan thinks that she is coming to bed again, but when he notices that there is no hint of her usual smile, he sits up and gives her a questioning look.

“That was Mr. Argent. Apparently, there was a mistake while sorting the stacks we were going through that night and quite ‘conveniently’ one of the interns whose forms were in the discard pile was the son of one of the members of the Board of Directors. So now Mr. Argent thinks that I suck at my job…”

Jordan feels a pang of guilt inside him as he cuts her off, now is the best time to come clean to her.

“Umm… About that…” he gulped and began, “‘I’ stacked it the wrong way.” And after a pause he softly added, “Intentionally.”

“What?!” Lydia probably understood what had happened, but it seemed as if she wasn’t able to process whatever she understood.

He began even more softly “I was consumed with my intention of messing things up for you just so you can face the wrath of your boss.” Blood rushed to his face and painted his cheeks as he felt absolute shame, unworthy of being in the same room as her.

“Mr. Jordan Parrish!” her booming voice echoed in the apartment, “I want you to explain yourself right this instant!” She was shaking in anger now and Jordan wasn’t unaware of it, since he could clearly hear her exhale shakily.

“I worked hard, way too hard to get promoted to the post you currently hold,” he felt stupid as he tried to defend himself, but he continued, now that there was nowhere to escape, “… and back then you were just some new girl who robbed me of my promotion.” Oh God... he wailed internally when he heard those words out loud. “… so I was extremely angry and I wasn’t thinking straight. So I…”

“What the hell?” She shrieked at him out of sheer frustration “I ‘robbed you of your promotion’!?” She tried to calm down a little as she punctuated each word she spoke, “I. Could. Have. Lost. My. Job.” And the thought of it made her burst out “What the absolute…”

Jordan was on his knees now, looking at her, tears streaming down his cheek, “I am so sorry. I really am. Please, please tell me how to fix this.” He looked as if he could bring the heaven on earth, were she to ask him of it.

Lydia looks down and breathes deeply as if she is trying to control her anger. When she looks up and turns her head at the window on her side, Jordan sees that her face is red and her eyes are glassy and he immediately stands up and attempts to walk to her and console her. But she turns to him and looks at him with such accusation in her eyes that Jordan thinks that she had struck him. He expects her to hurl abuses at him when she opens her mouth. But she looks at him in the eye and takes a deep breath before speaking.

“Mr. Jordan Parrish.” She says slowly, “It’s been nice knowing you.”

She turns and she leaves, shutting the door behind her and Jordan feels his knees weaken as he drops on the floor. He remains like that for what seems to him like an eternity, trying to grasp the fact that she is never coming back, never hanging out with him again, _never smiling at him again_. He doesn’t realize that he is crying until a groan escapes from his chest, loud in the _empty_ room. The room that still smelt of her vanilla perfume, the room that smelt of her, the room that had her a couple of hours ago. He wails as he realizes that she would never talk to him again, and he just couldn’t accept that. He claws at his phone from underneath his pillow and punches down a text meant for her.

**< Lydia, please let me make it up to you. Please. I am begging you.**

And just like he had assumed, she does not reply. Getting anxious by the second, he sends another text, already convinced that she won’t reply to that either.

**< I am really sorry. Please tell me how to fix this. I am so so sorry Lydia. Please.**

He customizes a loud chime to her message notification and waits. His gaze falls on a chocolate wrapper that is sticking out of the Tupperware Lydia had brought brownies in and he reaches for it blindly as if it was Lydia herself. He twists the wrapper in his fingers, the very fingers that ached to move the locks of her sun kissed hair off her face earlier that morning, as he keeps rubbing at his eyes frequently from where the tears never seem to stop from forming. Suddenly, he hears his phone vibrate, announcing an incoming notification and before it can start chiming the customized tone, he clicks on the new message that Lydia sent.

**> Thankyou Mr. Jordan Parrish.**

He is confused at first, so he types a quick text to her.

**< What? Lydia?**

**< What do you mean?**

He waits impatiently as the three dots appear and reappear at the bottom of the chat box, until there is a new message.

**> Thankyou for doing this. I’ve learnt quite the lesson about trust.**

He starts sobbing crumpled up on his bed, muffling his cries into a pillow, clutching the phone to his chest as her last words reverberate in his ears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had this huge urge to bring a twist in the plot and turn her into a banshee in the end of this story when she got mad, and believe me, I wanted her to scream and make him lose his mind, but then I decided to keep off the blood.  
> Oh, hold your breath, for I cant wait to write more stuff. There'll be Sterek stuff!!!! And I am so excited to write about it!!! Also, I promise smut in my next works. I could have added so here, but ! really need to get back to my books. So, I hope you enjoyed this, and I want you guys to write just how much you did; but, even if you didn't, let me know... please? Also... give me story-lines my honey bunches... and, if you liked this, share it. Give me motivation to write. Kudos <3


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